Bingo Industries has closed its Helensburgh recycling centre, less than a year after the company bought the property, as it looks to expand its other Illawarra facility at Kembla Grange.
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The Walker Street site – formerly Helensburgh Sands and Soils – closed for the final time on Thursday, with two of its five employees made redundant.
The remaining three staff will be offered roles at other Bingo sites.
A spokesman for the Sydney waste disposal empire said the Helensburgh operation was a “small landscape supply business that does not meet Bingo’s objective of investing in large waste recycling plants in Wollongong”.
Bingo Industries bought Helensburgh Sands and Soils and Wollongong Recycling – on Wyllie Road, Kembla Grange – from well-known Helensburgh waste managers the Blackwell family in mid-2017. Both were bought in one transaction for $9.5 million.
The company has since been granted approval to increase the volume of waste and recycling through its other Illawarra waste facility at Kembla Grange.
Asked why the Helensburgh site closed so soon, the spokesman said “the focus was always going to be on Kembla Grange to service the Wollongong region”.
“Helensburgh was a small site that served a useful purpose for a short period of time, yet was never part of longer term plans,” he said.
A Blackwell Brothers’ proposal to develop a major waste recovery “park” at the Walker Street property was knocked back by Wollongong City Council in July last year.
At the time, Bingo said the rejection would not affect the company’s plans for the Helensburgh site.
Andrew Pearson
Andrew grew up in the western Riverina town of Hay and has strong ties to the region. He is a former DA journo who has a passion for breaking news and has covered everything from council and politics to crime and court.
Andrew grew up in the western Riverina town of Hay and has strong ties to the region. He is a former DA journo who has a passion for breaking news and has covered everything from council and politics to crime and court.
